I have read another post in here from a few years ago on this disease and it pretty much all remains the same.
My girl was diagnosed last week.
Abby is not yet 4.
There were 2 articles on line that I found.
One was grim:
http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/clerk/rockwell/

I can start at the beginning...............
Saturday July 17th my girl was up in the middle of the night and her breathing was a bit off.....she was exhaling really hard, so we turned the air down figuring she was hot. Sunday day & night it was not better but it is so hot in Texas right not and very humid we did not immediately JUMP at the thought there was a problem but me being a Mom I went ahead and made an appt to see our vet on Tuesday.
We took much needed xrays and found her left lung was not expanding correctly, thought maybe fungal or infective so Doc put her on an array of meds. She seemed better Wed & Thurs but Friday her breathing labored even more so back to the vet we went. More xray which resulted in seeing fluid. Our vet removed some fluid and immediately knew it was Chyle.....after some pathology it was certain. She was able to remove 5cc which was nothing but a vial so she was not immediately concerned. We immediately started her on a low fat diet and Rutin which keeps the triglycerides to a minimum and from building up. We scheduled a sonogram for Monday morning to rule out a mass of some kind.
She did well all weekend with minor labored breathing. All this time she is eating well, drinking well, her poop is healthy & firm and she does not seem to be in distress at all.
Her sonogram was clean and no masses were found.
Monday night we set off for Texas A&M. Abby was seen by the chief of emergency immediately upon arrival Tuesday morning.
They did an upper & lower sonogram, pathology of chyle, xrays, complete labs, more xrays and they removed a very small amount of fluid off her chest.
I was told that we caught this disease so early that she is not showing any signs of distress.
She passed all of her testing and they found no reasoning for this horrible disease Chylothorax. Her diagnosis is Idiopathic Chylothorax
She was released wednesday night with strict instructions to keep an eye on her breathing, keep up on all meds, rutin included and a low fat diet, limited activity
( not hard to ask from a mastiff ) . Back to our local vet for monitoring & xrays in 3 weeks.
She is eating and can breathe easier these days considering they removed a very small amount fluid off her chest. She is a healthy girl otherwise and we are hopeful this Chylothorax will heal on it's own without the future need for surgery which is not guaranteed to work.
There is not a whole lot of reading material on this disease and I just wanted to let you all know of my personal experience with this disease.
I have met another who's boy had the surgery in 2003 and was successful.
We are hopeful this will resolve itself but we are better prepared to know what we are up against.
That was the intention of my post. We will keep praying and hoping this to will pass.

_________________Larry, Zeke and Nezzie You cannot do a kindness to soon, because you never know how soon it will be to late. Ralph Waldo EmersonGive HOPE. You can make a difference. ADOPT VOLUNTEER DONATE

I, too, have never heard of this disease and I'm so sorry that you and Abby have to go through this. Know that you're in my prayers....please keep us posted.

DawnDawn

DROOLER

Joined: 27 Mar 2008

Location: DFW-------TX

You have posted in this forum:
Sat Jul 31, 2010 4:08 pm Post subject:

texas-racer wrote (View Post): ›
I'm sorry to see this
How is her heart? Did they do any test for it?

Her echo was clear and all valves are working beautifully.
Like I stated she is an otherwise healthy dog.
She has suffered with epileptic seizure and incontinence since she was barley a year old but that is not related in any way to this disease, and both are managed well with no issues.
Thank you all for good thoughts and prayers. They are very appreciated.

I will be keeping you all in my prayers. I will read around and some questions to see if i can come up with something new.

_________________Larry, Zeke and Nezzie You cannot do a kindness to soon, because you never know how soon it will be to late. Ralph Waldo EmersonGive HOPE. You can make a difference. ADOPT VOLUNTEER DONATE

Moriah

SNORER

Joined: 05 Dec 2007

You have posted in this forum:
Mon Aug 02, 2010 7:55 pm Post subject:

Keep up the great work with her Dawn. I know this is tough but I have faith. Abby is a lucky girl to have you!

PS - I love that Sammie is watching over her. Keeping her bum warm.... just in case...

It has been 3 weeks now since we knew something was wrong but fir today you would never know she was ill. Unfortunately there is not alot of information in the disease which she is suffering from and everywhere I look or turn for answers is grim so I have not wanted to **jinx** anything.
She will go back to her vet in 2 weeks unless needed sooner for more xrays of her chest to see if there is a build up of fluid. I have been in contact with her vet daily just to make sure we are not leaving any stone unturned at the same time it is a learning experience for us both. From what I have been told there is a possibility her body can heal this tear or discharge on it's own and begin discharging Chyle normally again but once again, no studies, no stats.
She is on several medications as well as some herbal supplements and a low fat diet.......she now eats home cooking = )
Her vet at TX A&M and our local vet feel that at this stage she should be deteriorating quickly so
for today we are very hopeful that this will resolve itself and her body will continue to heal.

There is a bit more information on the disease in cats as it is seen in felines more than canines. Also it is a disease that seems to infect Afghan Hounds more than any other breed but the reasoning is not quite clear.
We have come to the realization that there might be hundreds of dogs out there that might have been misdiagnosed or some that never even went for a diagnosis. We will do everything within our power and reason to help Abby but we will not let her become a pin cushion or lab testing dog in the name of research.
It is very hard to see your girl smiling, dancing, wanting to please and know that potentially you could lose her. She seems so healthy right now but we are far from out of the woods. We are taking it 1 day at a time and today is a good day = )
No Matter the Stats she is my 1 in a million.

The bold area is where we are in our diagnosis:
How often this is necessary is highly individual but every few weeks is a common interval. In time, after many taps, scarring can build up to cause the fluid to “loculate” which means that small pockets of fluid form rather than one drainable area. This makes tapping more difficult over time.
We have only had 2 taps

She is on 4000mg of rutin a day, antibiotics, bronchioldilators and anti fungal meds.

Dawn have they talked about putting drains instead of constantly poking her?

_________________Larry, Zeke and Nezzie You cannot do a kindness to soon, because you never know how soon it will be to late. Ralph Waldo EmersonGive HOPE. You can make a difference. ADOPT VOLUNTEER DONATE

weebit29

GENTLE GIANT

Joined: 22 Sep 2007

Location: NC

You have posted in this forum:
Tue Aug 03, 2010 9:12 pm Post subject:

I know nothing
But I did want to tell you I would be praying for all of you, please keep us posted
Missy

_________________I'm innocent, I tell ya, innocent! Call Grammie!Pretend you are a star, and poke a hole into someones darkness

The problem with drains Larry is that she now has pockets of fluid. It is not collecting in just one area = (

Over a week since her last drain and she is doing well. Eating as normally as she ever has.......still a treat hog and drinking well.
Her breathing is still slow & steady although it is becoming a bit more shallow these days.
She still does the mastiff ***sigh***